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As the captain of the schooner opened the door of the state-room,
Faulcon raised his eye to his, and slightly moved his lip with an
expression of defiance.

“My dear Field,” said Lightfoot, assuming a frank, friendly tone, “I
am sorry to have been compelled to resort to this course to keep you on
board. Come, let us be friends. Let me remove your irons myself. There
is no need of a quarrel between us!”

“I submit to greater power than any I command,” answered Faulcon
“I am willing to remain on board until you reach some port. I shall
then expect you to let me quit your vessel. You can have no motive in
having me on board, so long as I positively refuse to act with you!”

“What objection have you?” asked Lightfoot, with a slight frown, as
he cast the manacles he had removed upon the floor of the cabin; “what
is your objection to remaining with me? I still sail under the same flag
which has for a twelve-month floated above your head!”

“I do not object to sailing under the Colombian flag, when honorably
used. You have severed your allegiance to the government, and have attached
yourself to no other. You will be pronounced against as a pirate.”

“But I am not a pirate!”

“I am ignorant of your intended course. Will you explain your plans
to me?”

“Cheerfully, if by that means I can bring you to duty. I shall first
sail for the Havanna, where Don Diego Valido has told me he has funds!”

“You will not dare enter the Havanna, with all your daring, under
the Colombian flag!”

“Why not? The war has ended! But still as the Navy is disbanded,
I think, under all circumstances, that I will hoist the stars and stripes!”

“You will then be declared a pirate by the United States. You are
playing too reckless a game for me, Captain Lightfoot!”

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“I play the game to suit myself. The schooner is my own. But I
won't be angry with you. We ought to be friends. You owe me gratitude
for protecting you in Boston. But let that pass. If you think yourself
more virtuous than I am, why you may go on shore at the Havanna!”

“I shall avail myself of this permission, be assured. Do you intend to
land the two prisoners there also?”

“Yes; if the Don planks down the ransom I mean to demand!”

“And if he refuses?”

“I shall then make up my mind what course to take with them!”

This was spoken with a reckless air, and in a tone somewhat imperative,
as well as impatient. Faulcon made no reply, though his indignant
feelings rose to his lips. He felt that discretion was the part he should
choose; and that for the present he ought to feign what he did not feel,
that he might the more successfully effect not only his own departure from
the schooner, but the escape of the lovely Castillian girl, for whom he
feared a fate was in store, which he dared not contemplate.

“My dear captain,” he said with a light laugh, “as I can't do any better,
I will return to my duty as first officer of the schooner, until we reach
Havanna, that is, provided you engage in no enterprize of a free character,
such as bringing defenceless vessels to! As we are no longer a Colombian
cruiser, this vocation is at an end!”

“I have no intention of molesting any one. You mistake me. I shall
by-and-bye sell my schooner—perhaps take her to New York or Boston
for the purpose, after leaving the Havanna. I have not, I confess, any great
compunctions about cruising a few weeks first on my own account, and I
confess it is a great temptation, with so fine a vessel, and such a picked
crew. Do you know that I shipped these men myself, with an eye one
day to hoisting a free flag. I had not, you see, much faith in the Colombian
revolution; and believing it would, ere long, end in smoke, I chose
my crew for my own purposes after. There is not a man on board that
would not hail a free flag hoisted to the peak with three cheers. But don't
fear! While I have such a moral gentleman on board as yourself, I shall
do nothing naughty! Will you come on deck with me, and let my men
see we are friends again!”

“Yes. Until you reach Havanna, I will remain in my station as an
officer of the schooner. There we part,” added Faulcon, firmly.

“Just as you please. Come, shall we go up?”

They ascended to the deck together, and Faulcon, taking his spy-glass
from the beckets, began to survey the receding port, as if nothing had
happened. Lightfoot felt that he had gained him over to his interests, and

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had no doubt but that he would be willing to remain in the vessel even
after they reached Havanna.

The passage was longer than usual on account of light winds and
strong head-currents. During the voyage, Faulcon carried himself with
such caution, that Lightfoot did not once suspect his sincerity. His confidence
in him was once more fully established; and the day before the
schooner made Cape St. Antonio, on the western extremity of Cuba, he
did not hesitate to believe that he would be ready to enter into a scheme
that he had planned for acquiring riches, for the prominent trait in the
character of the recreant Colombian captain, was avarice—the accumulation
of gold upon gold. His plan will be unfolded in the conversation he
held with Westwood the evening of the day on which they made the
Island, and while Faulcon had gone below after his watch was over.

“There is no question now, but that we have our man,” said Lightfoot
to his lieutenant. “I have had several talks with him, and he seems to
yield a point every time!”

“I don't think he will back out when the time comes for action. Have
you told him what you have decided to do!”

“No. I merely hinted that I might hoist the free flag after we had
landed the old man, and got his ransom money! He took the information
very coolly!”

“Has he said any thing more about leaving the schooner at Havanna?”

“Not a word. I told him yesterday, if he would give up this foolish
idea, that I would give him one thousand dollars, and that he should share
one third of my share in whatever prizes we took!”

“He is a good officer, and would be useful in a fight to lead on the
men, who are all somehow confoundedly attached to him. I thought,
when he was arrested, we should have had a mutiny off hand; and
I believe it was only the hot firing from the battery that diverted the
minds of the men from it! It seems to me that if I was in your
place I should prefer that he went ashore at Havanna. If he was
disposed, he might create a party in the schooner, and do you mischief!”

“I do not fear him. He has no idea of such a thing. I see you
are fishing for his berth, Westwood!”

“Not I! I am content with mine. What said he when you
spoke of landing the old Don? Didn't he ask if the daughter was to
go also?”

“Yes, and with no little earnestness. But I quietly replied that I
thought as ladies' society was very refining, I had half a mind to
detain her on board!”

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“Did he make any remark?”

“Not a word. But why do you ask? You seem to question me
something closely, as if you had an under meaning to your words!”

“Have you suspected nothing?”

“I don't quite understand you!”

“Lieutenant Faulcon is in love with the beautiful Senorita Adelaida!”

“Are you sure of this?”

“I know it. I have heard them conversing together, not only in
the cabin but when on deck. Last evening they were leaning, just
here, over the quarter railing, talking love by the half hour!”

“If I thought he was attached to her, I should love him less than
I do. It must be so, and this is the secret of her aversion to me.
Do you know, I can't get a civil word from her. She seems to avoid
me as if I was some hideous, one-eyed monster. So, so, Faulcon is
the man then! I now can account for his so readily consenting to
remain in the schooner and go to Havanna. But, by St. Paul, he
shall be disappointed if he expects that she will land there with him
or with her father. I had half made up my mind to keep her on
board before you told me of this, and now I have resolved to do it.
Neither he nor she shall leave the schooner. I will keep him on
board to witness my triumph to his own confusion!”

“And won't you land the Don? You won't lose the ransom
money? He will refuse to give you an order on his banker there,
unless it includes his daughter also!”

“That is true,” said Lightfoot, musingly. “I can't lose the money,
nor can I give up the lovely Spaniard. I love both the gold and the
lady equally. Well, I am glad you have told me what you have. I
shall act accordingly. Faulcon shall be defeated!”

“Can't you manage to send off the old Don after the money, when
you get to Havanna, and say that in the boat in which he forwards it
to the schooner his daughter shall return?”

“This artifice may do. I will try it. But then I fear it will fail.
He won't be likely to trust me. I will manage differently, for it is
now quite time I took off the mask. I will not go into Havanna, but
lay off the coast, and send a boat with the Don's order for the money.
This order I will compel him to give at the mouth of the pistol.
When the money comes (you, my trusty Westwood, shall be my
messenger) I will handsomely thank the Don, then hoist the free flag
and hey for the boundless sea!”

“That is the only life, after all,” answered Westwood, with

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sparkling eyes. “I am glad that course is settled. But what will you do
with master Faulcon?”

“I shall take care of him!”

“There will be trouble, unless he is quietly put overboard!”

“That wouldn't suit me. I want to triumph over him in the regards
of the fair Spaniard!”

“What port do you intend to make?”

“I think I shall run into New York first, and there refit and supply
my magazine, and get all ready for being a twelvemonth at sea. I
shall leave Faulcon and the Don there!”

“Well, I consent to your plans on condition you give me a fourth
share of all prizes we take, and that if you ship another lieutenant he
shall be second and I first!”

“I agree to this! How does she stand now, helmsman?”

“East by North, sir—half North.”

“That is well. We are not many hours sail now from Havana.
By midnight we shall be off the port!”

The schooner was now sailing steadily along, with the Cuban
coast on the starboard hand, and about five miles distant. The wind
was light from the south-west, and nearly aft. The night was clear
and starry, and the waves scarcely lifted the vessel on their gently
rolling undulations.

At the windows of the cabin, while the conversation just narrated
was passing on deck, sat the lovely Spanish prisoner leaning upon
her hand, and pensively gazing upon the phosphorescent waters as
they fretted about the moving rudder, and rippled and danced away
in a hundred circling wreaths far astern.

A footstep arrested her ear. She turned with a heightened glow
upon her cheek, and met, with a smile, the tender and impassioned
gaze of the eyes of the young man who had given her his heart.

“You seem unusually sad, fair Adelaida,” he said, taking her hand
from her cheek and pressing it in his, while he sat by her side.

“I have much reason to be sad, senor,” she answered, in a rich
low voice, just tremulous enough with emotion to be touching. “I
have less and less confidence in the pledges of the captain of this
vessel. You are my only bulwark from the dangers with which I
am environed!”

“Have you any new reason for these apprehensions?” he asked
quickly, anxiously.

“He has been here pressing upon me his hateful suit! He—but

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it is painful to speak of this. In you only I can trust for protection!
I fear his fiery temper and his power!”

“Do not fear. He shall not harm you! He shall die by my hand
if it be needful for your safety and happiness. Take courage. Tomorrow
we shall be at Havanna. You will then be free!”

“I hope so. But how is he to be trusted? My father has money
in the city, and will send an order for it; but how do we know that
when he receives it he will fulfil his promise to send us ashore?”

“He dare not refuse! He refuses it at the peril of his life!”

“Do not speak so loudly, senor! I would not have him suspect
your interest in me, lest you should fall a victim. Return, for I fear
he may discover us together!”

Field pressed her hand to his lips and entered his state-room, firm
in his purpose that Lightfoot should answer with his life for her
safety, and the fulfilment of his promises to himself and her.

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